Littorin: I should have investigated MBA course

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Sweden's labour market minister Sven Otto Littorin has said he never had a reason to question the credentials of an American college from which he took an MBA in 1997.

The college, Fairfax University, has been revealed to be a so-called degree mill, and not accredited by state authorities in Louisiana, where it was situated. Despite this, Littorin cited the MBA on his official CV.

After two days of media criticism, Littorin admitted to news agency TT on Tuesday that he should have handled things differently.

"I should maybe have investigated a bit more whether it was accredited of not, but I didn't know that I needed to. My understanding was that it was a proper course, because there was study plan and a tutor, I was delivering lots of information on a continuing basis over the course of a year, and I wrote a 123-page paper," he said.

"I'm not familiar with the American accreditation rules, but as I had a study plan, a tutor and handed in my paper, I saw no reason to be worried," said Littorin.

The fact that the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education could not evaluate his course did not concern Littorin.

"That's just the way things are; I'm not planning on using this to continue on to a PhD, and that was never my intention," he said.

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has spoken out in Littorin's defence.

"My understanding is that Littorin has described his starting point, how he experienced the course. I'm satisfied with that. I think that he has answered any possible criticism," he said.

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